Interview: The Slambovian Circus of Dreams

Interview: JOZIAH LONGO & TINK LLOYD (The Slambovian Circus of Dreams)
By: Rob Smittix

Photo Credit: Rich P Russo

RRX: How are you?

JL: Pretty good, man. I’m happy to do this, I’m in an interview mood. I was just reading an Earl Slick interview, somebody sent me so…

RRX: Nice. So we are in interview mode but I like to keep it more like a conversation at most. I’ve always wanted to talk to you guys. I think now is finally the time.

JL: Yeah, I was looking forward to it, Rob. Can you tell me a little bit of your background even with us? I’m happy to talk to you.

RRX: Excellent. Yeah, I don’t know if you remember, but it was.. God, I don’t know, 2005-ish, somewhere around there. I was just going through my divorce with my ex-wife and I didn’t have my kid for Christmas, and you guys came through the New Baltimore rest stop, where I was working. Something probably let you know that I was into music. I usually brought a guitar or sometimes I had a whole recording studio set up in the little gas station booth. You came in and I imagine you just came back from doing a show, so maybe it was Christmas Eve. And then Joziah came back in with the Flapjacks From The Sky double CD and said Merry Christmas and that really made my Christmas for me.

JL: Oh, good, Rob. That’s always our hope. That’s the highest point of the mission, is doing something that actually empowers and helps somebody. So that’s good to hear.

RRX: Yeah, I’ve been a fan ever since.

JL: Cool man, cool.

RRX: So that was my story on how I discovered you for myself that day, or maybe you discovered me! You guys really got a really cool thing going. This woman I used to work with is a big fan and was always going to your shows with a a jellyfish umbrella, she even brought me back some of your coffee once.

JL: The immortal jellies are what we call those umbrella people, they’re the real hardcore Grand Slambovians.

RRX: Yeah they are.

JL: Yeah, we love those guys!

RRX: So what’s been going on in your world lately?

JL: We’ve been busy, a lot of shows. We just did a show at Katharine Hepburn Theater, the night before last and we’re in the middle of a lot of recording. One of my nephews who’s this studio freak…. he’s very good at engineering and rebuilding old esoteric kinds of equipment. He decided that he wanted to offer to be my wrecking crew to get more stuff recorded. So we’re working on the first single with him, Tristan Tadin. He’s a singer and songwriter unto himself, he’s amazing.
He just grabbed one of my songs and played everything on it and now it’s getting mixed, so we’re in the process of that too. We’re working out with the circus as well.

TL: Yeah, so we’re kind of doing two projects at once because we’re trying to get more songs out to the fans. So the stuff that Joziah does with Tristan, it. really has a more of a singular vibe, it’s gonna be different but really cool. And then we have the band, we already have all the songs ready to be recorded. But it’s a little trickier with them because we really want live performances of the band stuff on that album. It’s just hard to get everybody geographically in the same place. It takes more time but with Tristan, it’s cool because we’re close and he’s quick. So we’re just working on a few things, you know?

RRX: Definitely. Well, it’s always good to have music in the family like that.

JL: Yeah, it is. I mean, we’ve always been a family band, you know? Our kids all play and are artists and stuff like that and Tristan… we remember him when he was just little, you know? Now he’s an adult doing this stuff.

TL: Yeah, actually it’s so cool because Tristan played a lot of the keyboards on our last album. He was just a young guy and his dad helped produce that album.

JL: “A Very Unusual Head” album.

TL: Yeah, he was a big support for that album, then he learned how to do the studio stuff. The first track we did in Canada, which is where they live. With Tristan, we started doing our shows in Canada and we let them open for us in in Toronto. We have a long history with the family.

JL: Yeah, they moved their whole studio down from Canada after we’d gone up there and did 8 tracks for the Very Unusual Head album. They moved their studio down and rented a place called Big Blue… like 10 minutes from where we live and we recorded most of the album there and then they decided they were gonna stay here. They actually bought a place and moved to this area now and it’s got a really nice studio there. So yeah, it’s magic.

RRX: That does sound like magic. So… are there any messages that you wanted to put out to people or to the fans or the people that could possibly become fans, while I still have you on the line?

TL: One of the songs that we do is called “Enemies of Love,” it’s a fantastic song and there’s a quote that we use and you (Joziah) should say it.

JL: “There are no enemies at all, in all below, above, in all creation, baby, except the Enemies of Love.”

RRX: I love it!

TL: It’s something to make everybody relax and realize, there are no enemies.

JL: Yeah, 2000 years ago somebody said love your enemies. We’re not doing a very good job of that. That’s why we’re like stay out of what’s going on right now. It’s really like the end of the world, man but the beginning of the new, the end of stupidity and the beginning of something that makes sense and it’s from the heart. If there ain’t love involved in it, like John Lennon said, you know? You can’t go carrying pictures or whatever he said…
all the activist, smart people got into this thing where it’s like, wow; that’s not what Lennon was talking about in the revolution.
You’re hating too much. I don’t care whether it’s somebody that’s easy to hate or not. It’s not good for you or your family. Give everybody a chance and let’s see what happens, you know?

RRX: It’s very important to be on the right vibrations and frequencies, man. That’s what I’ve learned. And… I don’t know, maybe we’ll see those flapjacks coming down from the sky at some point. I think that’s coming pretty soon. Maybe that’ll help out, maybe that’s what we need?

JL: Yeah, I think it is, Rob. I was happy to hear that that album really inspired your Christmas. Christmas is really like a renewal time but it’s also could be the heaviest time. I’m really glad that in some way… you got on one of those flapjacks and flew through that Christmas. If you’re down and out on Christmas, it doesn’t get any worse. I’m glad we still got you.

TL: Thank you Rob, are you coming to the show with Caffe Lena?

RRX: Unless God has other plans but I’m aiming to come. Thank you both for this wonderful conversation.

For More Info on the band visit: slambovia.com

This Saturday April 19th 8pm
The Slambovian Circus of Dreams (Unplugged)
Caffe Lena (Saratoga Springs, NY)

Purchase TICKETS HERE!